In which Tim gets his butt whipped...

Carnaval is a very festive time of year around here. It is a holiday that does not make a lot of sense to me, and no one has been able to explain it very well. As far as I can tell, the main attraction are the large festive costumes that a lot of people put on to go walk in parades. Some of the costumes look like monsters or demons, and others are more fun. There is usually a lot of alcohol that goes along with these parades. I think Carnaval began as something to lead up to the lent season (much like Mardi Gras), but it has kind of become its own big attraction, so celebration usually goes on a few days after Ash Wednesday.

I chose to observe Carnaval by travelling to La Vega, a medium sized town in the middle of the country that boasts the largest and most festive Carnaval around. I went with a big group of volunteers, prepared to take some pictures and have a good time.

Now, there is a tradition at Carnaval that is very strange and more than a little bit wrong. The men in costumes have ropes with inflated pig bladders (resembling balloons) on the end. They like to swing the rope around, and bash onlookers on the bottom with the pig bladder. Really hard. Their favorite targets are young, attractive women, and tourists. And we had a lot of each of those in our group.

I knew about this tradition, and I was prepared to be a gallant defender of the ladies. I took up a spot in the rear of our group as we moved through the crowd, hoping that the presence of myself (a tall man) between the women and the bashers might discourage a little bit of the physical abuse. I was wrong. While the girls might have been hit a little bit less, the guys with the bladders had absolutely no problem going after me instead. And I think they might have been a little mad that I was keeping them from tormenting the cute little Americanas. Because they hit me REALLY hard. My back side is literally black and blue. I can barely sit down right now. I would post a photo, but I like to keep this blog at a PG-13 level. I am sure you can all imagine what a heavily bruised bottom looks like. Yikes.

So yes, it is a strange holiday. I will let you know if I learn any more about what it all means.